Tuesday, February 13, 2007

This post sems so unbelievable and it's being reported as true. It might BE true, and if it is, all I can think of is, "Holy Shit!"

But honestly, I wonder. Just this week, a new Russian bill is being submitted to their assembly criminalizing homosexuality. If convicted, a person can get up to 5 years in prison.

And just a few months ago, Putin blamed homosexuals (as if there are that many of us to affect a national average) for the decrease in birth rates among Russian peoples.

Given these recent incidents, a report such as this makes me wonder if tactics of fear and shock are being deployed to prep the peoples for the passing of legislation criminalizing homosexuality. It wouldn't be the first time that Russian news is being used for the benefit of its government, to not report the news but to promulgate propaganda.

Either that or my trusted lgbt news at 365 gay news is turning into a gay National Enquirer.

*****

(Moscow) Young Russian conscripts reportedly are being routinely forced by senior officers to work as male prostitutes and turn over the cash to their superiors.

The Gazeta newspaper, quoting some of the soldiers and the human rights group Union of the Committees of Soldiers' Mothers of Russia, reports that the soldiers were from the army base in St. Petersburg.

One client, the paper said, was a former general in the FSB, Russia's intelligence agency.

The rights group tells the paper that clients would arrive at base late at night and the soldiers would be forced by officers to get into the cars. They often would not return until morning.

One of the soldiers told the Gazeta said the officers would use violence and torture to force the men into prostitution.

"The officers would beat us on the arms and legs. We were sent out to the park to earn money ... I was tortured with electric shocks," said one.

The paper said that officers at base passed a client list on to successors and that the practice had been going on for some time.

The soldiers were allegedly paid about $50 for each "trick" with most of the money going back to the officers.

Russia's military has been faced with a crash crunch since the fall of Communism, and soldiers regularly complain they have not been paid. Many in the military have moonlighted to make ends meet.

Last year a 19 year old conscript was so badly beaten and tortured by his superiors that his genitals and legs had to be amputated and in another case a deputy commander in Siberia rented out his troops to local businesses for a commission.

Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Ivanov, considered a potential successor to president Vladimir Putin has promised an investigation.